Illuminated Playing Cards: Two Decks for Games and Tarot (The Illuminated Art Series)

I bought these first before buying the larger set of cards. I love these so much I'm about to buy a back up copy or two. I don't use them as playing cards but as tarot cards on their own or as clarifiers for other regular tarot decks. They are so spot on and at first it seemed confusing how I will know which card to choose for the doubled up cards but you will know. Sometimes I am drawn to the major arcana or the minor arcana in one card. And you find it really doesn't matter because you still get accurate readings.I love that they have a gold and navy blue version. I use the gold as the surface energy and the navy blue when I want to find the subtext or unseen energies in a situation. This was such an original and unique idea but it really works. The cards I assume are thinner than the larger version but they are very durable feeling with a linen surface. A nice touch is that the gold ink is actually metallic with a low sheen so when you turn some of the images it changes. I also love the box as a very sturdy but small, elegant and portable set. If you don't want people to know you are doing tarot this would also be a good set as they are so small, discrete and look like playing cards.

I already own the much larger cards, "The Illuminated Tarot" by the same artist. I absolutely loved that deck.The playing cards are much smaller and thinner though.The plus for me, is that this comes with two decks in light and dark artwork.They can be used for playing cards or cartomancy and would be handy for travel.And yeah, it still has the lovely artwork for every card that one rarely sees in regular player decks. There is also a system here that works well for get-to-the-point Tarot/cartomancy readings.The minus for me, the cardstock seemed thinner than the Illuminated Tarot. Almost too thin for my tastes. And the smaller size definitely feels awkward for me when shuffling.That isn't a riff on the quality of the deck. After playing around with them, and learning how to shuffle I upvoted my original rating from 4 to 5.This deck was a good buy and fits my purposes well enough. :-)

These decks are beautiful and high quality. The illustrations are fantastic and they feel durable with out feeling like you're holding slippery plastic. Comes with a little booklet with some basic card games and a description of each card's tarrot meaning. Also comes with a nice lidded box to keep both decks it, you may need to secure it with an elastic for storage.My only complaint is that each deck only has one Joker and there are a few games I play that require 2, so I will still need to use other decks for those.

Size comparison picture: to the left, Bianco Nero, standard tarot size. To the right, Centennial Waite in a tin, pocket size.These are the same as the Illuminated Tarot except they're much smaller and the colors are different.I much prefer these to the original full size full color. Strange but true!These are adorable playing-card size decks. I have a strong preference for the dark one as it's easier to see contrast in it to me, but I'm glad there's two in the box regardless. Speaking of the box, it is very beautiful, sturdy, and one of my favorite cars boxes ever.Now, the decks. I don't agree with all the minor / major combinations made. You probably won't either. And still, this deck really has something. I still have NO idea how I will go about reading with it BUT I was looking for some intermediate between reading with playing cards (which I want to learn) and reading with tarot and this is it.I will study, make number + suite (+image) connections and end up with meanings. It will be something new for sure, but it is exciting.It's very cool to have these to read with as they are much more inconspicuous than a normal tarot deck. In many places I wouldn't dare read with a tarot deck but using those I can pretend I'm just playing a card game! They don't look like anything other than very cute and pretty playing cards to whom does not know tarot. To anyone who does, they are clearly enough tarot related.I will be looking forward to studying and using those. The size makes them perfectly easy to handle. They seem sturdy, too.

I LOVE THESE CARDS, more than any of the more traditional tarot decks I've tried. They are stunningly beautiful in blue and gold, the cardstock feels sturdy, and the cards are easy to shuffle. I love the small poker card size and I find them to be very intuitive and easy to read. Yes some of the major arcana/minor arcana combinations are kinda strange, but I find that bit easy to get around if I just draw another clarifying card when I get them.

I love these cards! The pictures are gorgeous and the quality is great. I like the way they feel/texture. I like to clarify tarot readings with regular playing cards so that is why I got these. It will be a bit different because the artist has chosen to include the Major arcana, but they're assigned to a minor arcana or court card. For example, the Queen of Hearts/cups is also the Empress. I just got them but I am already so impressed and excited to start using them.

That tells you that I love these cards. At first I used the two deck separately but as I was doing readings online regularly it made sense to combine them. That is a really great system on its own as it has the clarifier cards built in with the second deck added. It also has a sun and a moon side so you can use it to indicate various things depending on how you do your readings. The thing with this combined major arcana system is that it does push you to trust your intuition and pick out the story but it also gives you more places to pull meanings and messages from when you have the combined card. I like to use this combined deck on its own or to clarify a regular tarot deck.